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Description
Eight inches tall. Four feet of wingspan. Twenty-six inches long.
Wool, wire, fabric, clay, paint, sealant, and countless hours.
Four wings, with different colors on each side.
Full articulation.
And an extra buddy, just for company.

This is Ravean 's Rajendra and Hula .

-------------------------------------

Before I get ahead of myself, here is my heartfelt thanks to Ravean for being so patient and supportive. Some of you may remember my earlier work for her , but if you don't, there it is. Ravean has been one of my most awesome commissioners, and if my say-so isn't enough for you, you'll see why I feel that way by the end of this description.

Finishing this piece is almost spiritual for me, in a way. Not only has this been my biggest commission to date, but also one that has taught me much about my craft. Painting colors onto fabric and felt, adding sculpted claws, dual-panel wings, rooting hair... I've learned so much just in the process of doing this character justice.

In addition to the actual crafting of the piece, the timespan within which it was completed saw much personal turmoil in my life. Shortly after the commissioning of this piece, I began to fall into clinical depression. Now, I didn't realize it at the time, but my life started falling apart. At first, I was just tired all the time. Then came the difficulty with scheduling I'd never had before. Soon, I was sleeping nearly every moment I wasn't at school, work, or with friends-- which quickly snowballed into not getting homework done, and then skipping classes out of guilt.

I was at home, sleeping almost every moment. And the moments I couldn't sleep? I'd lost interest in activity of any kind. Art, videogames, reading, hanging out with friends-- at best, I forced myself to do things. At worst, I actively avoided these "annoyances" that had once been joys. I could barely drag myself out of bed for food that was delivered to my door. I'd go hungry because I couldn't muster the energy to order out through online ordering websites. When I did force myself out, for work, I could barely go five minutes alone without sobbing. It was a constant pressure to not break down in public. Holding a conversation was difficult; the shortest two-hour shift at the front desk was intolerable.

It took the support of my many wonderful friends to keep me alive while I stubbornly insisted "I can do it". Looking back, of course I couldn't-- but I tried so hard to hold everything together. Aside from my few closest friends, people who knew me may have noticed I hadn't been doing as well academically, but that was about it. Teachers saw me show up consistently for the first halves of the academic term, and would inquire as to why I dropped the class half-way through, in spite of my outspoken love of learning and (still above average) grades. My parents had no idea where I'd been at. It was only when I broke down crying on the phone about finances in the latter period that they really began to worry.

A couple months in a partial-hospitalization program later, I'm now at a much better place in terms of mental, emotional, and physical health. That was Jan-Feb of this year. But while the medical expense was necessary and highly beneficial, it did nothing for my finances. So the past few months have been a blur of attempting to find jobs and commissions and gigs and whatnot.

Among that flurry of work, I'd been diligently working on Rajendra, here. But by this time, it had been a full two years since I'd originally been commissioned for this project. So, in between waiting for layers of paint to dry (there was so much paint to dry! oh my gosh!), I decided to create Ravean's other character from the same universe, Hula, in the same size-scale. It is the very least I can do for the wonderful and accommodating person I got the chance to work with.

Ravean , I can only hope I did your characters justice. Thank you so very much for your business and your acquaintance; it has added immeasurably to my own journey through this crazy lil' life here on Earth.

~pahein

-------------------------------------

This creation was made with a type of crafting called needle felting. Basically what happens is I take a bunch of loose (i.e. roving) wool and jab it with a needle (many, many times). The wool bonds to itself, slowly getting firmer and firmer. Eventually, it's firm enough to stand by itself in a sculpture-like way. By adding more roving wool, I can sculpt a creature or a person or whatever out of the wool.

Needlefelting is a relatively new craft, having only been invented 30 years or so ago. It's similar to the process of wet felting, but instead of using water to bind the wool together, needles are used. My needlefelt creations almost always include a wire base, so they are extremely posable, and I find the freedom of sculpting and the resulting plushness to be everything I could have asked for in a medium.

For my commission details, please visit the following link: fav.me/d944jgu

Description
Eight inches tall. Four feet of wingspan. Twenty-six inches long.
Wool, wire, fabric, clay, paint, sealant, and countless hours.
Four wings, with different colors on each side.
Full articulation.
And an extra buddy, just for company.

This is Ravean 's Rajendra and Hula .

-------------------------------------

Before I get ahead of myself, here is my heartfelt thanks to Ravean for being so patient and supportive. Some of you may remember my earlier work for her , but if you don't, there it is. Ravean has been one of my most awesome commissioners, and if my say-so isn't enough for you, you'll see why I feel that way by the end of this description.

Finishing this piece is almost spiritual for me, in a way. Not only has this been my biggest commission to date, but also one that has taught me much about my craft. Painting colors onto fabric and felt, adding sculpted claws, dual-panel wings, rooting hair... I've learned so much just in the process of doing this character justice.

In addition to the actual crafting of the piece, the timespan within which it was completed saw much personal turmoil in my life. Shortly after the commissioning of this piece, I began to fall into clinical depression. Now, I didn't realize it at the time, but my life started falling apart. At first, I was just tired all the time. Then came the difficulty with scheduling I'd never had before. Soon, I was sleeping nearly every moment I wasn't at school, work, or with friends-- which quickly snowballed into not getting homework done, and then skipping classes out of guilt.

I was at home, sleeping almost every moment. And the moments I couldn't sleep? I'd lost interest in activity of any kind. Art, videogames, reading, hanging out with friends-- at best, I forced myself to do things. At worst, I actively avoided these "annoyances" that had once been joys. I could barely drag myself out of bed for food that was delivered to my door. I'd go hungry because I couldn't muster the energy to order out through online ordering websites. When I did force myself out, for work, I could barely go five minutes alone without sobbing. It was a constant pressure to not break down in public. Holding a conversation was difficult; the shortest two-hour shift at the front desk was intolerable.

It took the support of my many wonderful friends to keep me alive while I stubbornly insisted "I can do it". Looking back, of course I couldn't-- but I tried so hard to hold everything together. Aside from my few closest friends, people who knew me may have noticed I hadn't been doing as well academically, but that was about it. Teachers saw me show up consistently for the first halves of the academic term, and would inquire as to why I dropped the class half-way through, in spite of my outspoken love of learning and (still above average) grades. My parents had no idea where I'd been at. It was only when I broke down crying on the phone about finances in the latter period that they really began to worry.

A couple months in a partial-hospitalization program later, I'm now at a much better place in terms of mental, emotional, and physical health. That was Jan-Feb of this year. But while the medical expense was necessary and highly beneficial, it did nothing for my finances. So the past few months have been a blur of attempting to find jobs and commissions and gigs and whatnot.

Among that flurry of work, I'd been diligently working on Rajendra, here. But by this time, it had been a full two years since I'd originally been commissioned for this project. So, in between waiting for layers of paint to dry (there was so much paint to dry! oh my gosh!), I decided to create Ravean's other character from the same universe, Hula, in the same size-scale. It is the very least I can do for the wonderful and accommodating person I got the chance to work with.

Ravean , I can only hope I did your characters justice. Thank you so very much for your business and your acquaintance; it has added immeasurably to my own journey through this crazy lil' life here on Earth.

~pahein

-------------------------------------

This creation was made with a type of crafting called needle felting. Basically what happens is I take a bunch of loose (i.e. roving) wool and jab it with a needle (many, many times). The wool bonds to itself, slowly getting firmer and firmer. Eventually, it's firm enough to stand by itself in a sculpture-like way. By adding more roving wool, I can sculpt a creature or a person or whatever out of the wool.

Needlefelting is a relatively new craft, having only been invented 30 years or so ago. It's similar to the process of wet felting, but instead of using water to bind the wool together, needles are used. My needlefelt creations almost always include a wire base, so they are extremely posable, and I find the freedom of sculpting and the resulting plushness to be everything I could have asked for in a medium.

For my commission details, please visit the following link: fav.me/d944jgu